The Hamilton Phenomenon

“Hamilton: An American Musical” burst onto Broadway in 2015, just a year before the presidential election of 2016 and its aftermath forced Americans into a broad, often troubling reexamination of their history and culture. “The Hamilton Phenomenon” (Vernon Press), edited by Dr. Chloe Northrop, professor of history at Tarrant County College, is an engaging collection of essays that explore Hamilton and attempt to answer a question that Northrop asks in her introduction – “does a musical like Hamilton have a place in our current society?”

In the nine essays collected here, historians find Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton to be much more than the story of America’s Founding Fathers modernized with hip-hop music, rap lyrics, and creative casting. Just like the national conversation since 2016, Hamilton is about racism, sexism, immigration, and small-versus-big government.

Shira Lurie, Saint Mary’s University, argues that Hamilton is not “a gateway into history, but rather into historical memory.” That memory is exactly what Americans wrestle with when they argue over Confederate monuments or the roots of slavery and civil rights. Hamilton is not a work of history, per se, but an entrée into a historical era that many would ignore without the musical’s invitation. Kaitlin Tonti, Seton Hall University, argues that, “Performance makes public history accessible while encouraging reimagined forms of the stories that whitewash the past.” Indeed, Miranda seems to have written Hamilton with that purpose in mind.

Hamilton: An American Musical deserves more than a cursory viewing. The essays in The Hamilton Phenomenon show how deftly and completely the musical explores America’s complicated historical memory.

Dr. Steve Jones

Southwestern Adventist University